Carl Edwards certainly made his name known during his 13-year stint in NASCAR. He found his way to victory lane on numerous occasions and quickly became one of NASCAR's rising stars back in 2005. However, his sudden retirement was announced before the 2017 season, and the decision left his fans fairly shocked and confused.
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It's one thing to retire, but the guy was on a roll. The Columbia, Missouri native had 445 starts in the NASCAR Cup Series during the span of his racing career. Out of those, he grabbed 28 wins and 220 top-10 finishes, and was even the runner-up in the Cup Series championship standings two different times. Even further, he tacked on an additional 38 Xfinity Series wins, a championship win, and another 174 top-10 finishes. Edwards also became known for his signature backflip off of his car, and the fans loved it.
Hell, during his last year in 2016, he was fourth in the standings. It really was a mystery as to why he decided to retire from his full-time career as a NASCAR driver. Edwards drove the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing at the time, and even Gibbs himself admitted to Dale Earnhardt Jr. on his podcast in 2019 that he wasn't told the real reason behind Edwards' retirement.
Edwards has been asked the question plenty of times, but he did confirm that he had no plans to return to NASCAR during an interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio in 2018. He claimed to miss a lot of people from that environment, but he was sticking to his decision of retiring from motorsports. You can check out a portion of the interview just below.
AUDIO: #CarlEdwards joined @ClaireBLang for a status update of sorts tonight. Could we see Carl Edwards the...politician?👔👇 pic.twitter.com/QSiJwxAoLB
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) March 22, 2018
Does Carl Edwards Belong in the NASCAR Hall of Fame?
In 2020, Carl Edwards was chosen as one of the nominees for the 2021 NASCAR Hall of Fame class. It was only understandable, after considering all that he was able to accomplish during his NASCAR career. Ultimately, Edwards was not chosen as an inductee, but it's hard to imagine that he won't be inducted in the near future.
In his nomination interview from back in April 2020, which you can see below, Edwards reminisces about the good times on the track, and gives his thanks to those who helped him along the way. He also shares a little bit of information regarding what he had been up to recently, which is something many fans were curious about, considering he hadn't been really been appearing much in public.
Even if he just came back as a broadcaster for ESPN or Fox Sports, it sure would be nice to have Edwards back around NASCAR again. I think he would do quite well at it, but his priorities seem to be in other areas. He's got a farm to tend to with his brother, and he's even been dabbling a bit in politics lately. Who knows what the future may hold for Carl Edwards?
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